pamey

hello, im wanting advice on the transportation of my 4 guinea pigs to Texas.
we are hoping to travel with in the next couple of months.
i have prevously lived in Texas and have friends who can help with the collection and look after them if i send them before i go.
Just would like to know if anyone has done this,? and what the costs were and what companies and also if they survived as gp are very timid.
i have had one quote which wasnt too bad.
just wonderd if anyone has transported them before.
thankyou.

audio

From the UK? Pretty traumatic I would think owing to the noise and vibration in an aircraft hold. I doubt carriage would be allowed in the cabin. Best talk to an airline and vet.

pamey

Thanks for the reply
Yes I agree I think it would be traumatic,
Yes it's from UK to To Texas.
Just wondered if anyone had actually done this and has successfully got them there in one peace 🙏
We have already spoken to vets and one courrier.
They say the decision is mine, they didn't want to say either way.
Thanks again 😊👍

audio

I personally think that if you can find an airline that will offer carriage in the cabin where you can keep an eye on them, you will be in with a good chance. Transported in the cargo hold, little chance IMO.

Good luck.

steph0scope

The UK doesn't allow animals in the cabin unless they are assistance animals (not emotional support animals) trained to assist a blind or physically disabled person. A guinea pig is unlikely to withstand the temperature changes in the aircraft hold. I don't know about the cost but when we moved across several states early last year and priced up the cost of taking our dog we almost fainted. And that was just domestically so no international procedures to deal with. A small animal can be taken in the cabin domestically but not internationally.

Are you moving anytime soon?

Rete

Book an ocean voyage instead.

civilservant

Honestly (and I know that this is not a nice suggestion) you might be better off finding them a new home in the UK that you know will take care of them.

I would be very concerned that none of them will survive the trip, and that's not the way you want to start life in the US

Good suggestion if you can afford the cost and time.

audio

Under normal conditions, there is no temperature change in the hold.

Jerseygirl

I think you would be very lucky to find an airline or ship which will transport a rodent.

audio

Technically that’s true but an insult to their owners I think

Pulaski

I don't see anything intrinsically difficult in shipping guinea pigs, and while I know they are notoriously timid (I used to have one (yeah, I know that was a mistake) and a friend had several), I suspect that so long as they are travelling as a group, and in a container that they are familiar with, they will cope remarkably well being confinded in a (relatively) small dark crate - small animals often take comfort in a small, dark hidey-hole, that a human would find claustrophobic.

The one problem I foresee would be the ground temperature at the airport on arrival. Some airlines won't fly cats and dogs into Texas and other southern states during the summer for that reason - lest the ambinent temperature after the animals are removed from the plane, waiting on the tarmac, is too high to be safe for them, and I would expect the same would be true for small mammals.

audio

I would normally agree, but during take-off, the high noise and vibration levels in the hold (normally rear) I would consider catastrophic for GP’s during take off

Pulaski

Taken in isolation I agree, but you omitted the justification I gave, that small animals take a lot more comfort in being in a dark hidey-hole than you or I would. And while the duration might be a bit longer, I don't think that thunder storms cause guinea pigs to drop dead in large numbers - scary, maybe, but not fatal.

civilservant

I don't think a thunderstorm, which is, at worst, several hundred feet above you, compares to the sound of a pair of GE9Xs pushing out 105,000lbs of thrust when fire walled literally a few feet from you.

I don't think those GPs would enjoy that very much at all.

JMO.

Pulaski

But you know that, and a guinea pig doesn't, he is hiding in a familiar small dark space with his buddies.

I agree it wouldn't be "enjoyable", but I doubt a guinea pig has any awareness of the difference between a jet engine and a massive static electrical discharge.